Ѫ FROM DUST TO DUST Ѫ
by DataGrowth
Summary: The time for preparation has ended. As old evils begin to strengthen their grasp on the world, team RWBY is drawn in by fate to combat the growing darkness. However, this particular evil strikes the hardest from within, and the four girls will have to take a long, hard look at themselves before being able to step up to face the ultimate enemy Ѫ.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

Who am I?

I am the blood that pours from the wounds of the dying men who cry for mercy on the red-stained fields of battle.  
I am the tales that are passed on throughout the generations that keep the young ones cowering under their covers during the night.  
I am the dread that you feel as the lights flicker out and your hope surrenders like the flame of a candle, futilely trying to battle the unyielding winds of a bitter, winter night.  
I am what I am. I am **d̛͟͞a̸̷rk̡n͘҉e̷͠s̴s̀.**

…

Many believe that _darkness_ is merely the absence of light. After all, one strike of a match to an oiled lantern and the obscurity of the night is instantly replaced with light. The same light that grants vision to the blind and peace to the restless.

However, whatever insight is gained in such simple logic is countered only by the failure in noticing the smaller, more subtle things: The cracks in the walls—the folds of the curtains—the very shadows that you cast beneath your feet—the _**darkness**_ that guiltlessly lingers about. The darkness that hungers for the day that the light will finally fade and anarchy will once again claim its rightful spot on the top of the world.

No, darkness is not subservient to the light. It is a living, breathing force that whittles away at its restraints, growing closer and closer to freedom every single day.

…

You men believe that you have won, that your ingenuity has claimed you the victory that will allow you to sleep soundly during the night. You foolishly believe that _peace_ will last you as long as your weapons can be raised and your heads can be held up high. You may prepare your guardians and build your monuments to a so-called 'free world', but take heed... there will be no victory in strength.

And when that strength finally crumbles and your _Grimm Fate_ catches up to you, remember me. Remember the darkness and remember my name, for I will savor the helpless cries of misery as my creatures of the night are set upon you and your very world is torn out from beneath your feet.

**When that finally happens, you may call me by my name: A͜͠smodeu****s**.

* * *

**...**

**...**

**...**

* * *

'_**CCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!'**_

The windows rattled and the building shook violently. Professor Ozpin's eyes snapped open. His breathing came out in short, heavy rasps, and cold sweat beaded his lower back, staining his ivory bed sheets. The wind outside howled maliciously, complimenting the rain that harshly battered the roof, making a metallic '_PING! PING! PING!' _every time it made contact. Ozpin shut his eyes, providing himself the time he needed to steady his breathing.

He was coming, and Ozpin knew it. It was impossible to put it off any longer. The darkness was returning at an overwhelmingly fast rate, and they were running out of the time that mankind so desperately needed. As Ozpin sat up and took a sip of coffee from the mug on his bedside, he whispered quietly the one word to himself that he knew was the subject of mankind's worry.

"_Asmodeus_."

* * *

**A/N: Originally, this was going to be part of another story of mine, but its plot clashed too much with its underlying themes. Leave a review to tell me what you think! **

**- DataGrowth**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

**A/N: This story contains the POVs of different characters. A switch in POV will be indicated by the new person's name, underlined and bolded. Be sure to leave a review if you have any feedback or questions!**

**-DataGrowth **

* * *

**RUBY ROSE**

Something was off today. For the three classes that Ruby had attended in that day, she couldn't help but notice that each of her teachers had all seemed… distracted, to say the least. They appeared to be missing the energy that often radiated out of them when they taught their classes. Professor Port's lesson lacked its signature vigor. Professor Oobleck sat through his lecture—through his _entire_ lecture. Not once did he get up and zip across the room, as Ruby expected him to do so at any moment. Even the friendly janitor, who often waved hello to Ruby as she passed by, kept his eyes glued to the floor as he shuffled awkwardly around the hallway with his broomstick. It was almost as if all of the staff at Beacon were keeping a large secret, and were afraid that the students would ask about it.

The most notably strange class, in Ruby's opinion, had been Goodwitch's dueling class. Professor Goodwitch, who was known to be able to keep her composure in the most unconventional of situations, was just completely out of it. She had trouble keeping focus on her lecture, and when she announced to the class that she had a video that she wanted to show on the projector, her hands had been shaking so badly that she couldn't properly select the video to play. In the end, she ended up needing to call on another student to select it for her.

From that point, the woman only seemed to unravel further. She skipped an entire chapter from their books by mistake, and Weiss had to raise her hand and tell her three times before the woman was able to realize her error. Finally, she dismissed the class an hour early without any overnight assignments—something that definitely set off red alerts ringing through Ruby's head. Goodwitch's class was often considered the most difficult class on the campus, and her students _never_ left the classroom without a boatload of work to be finished by the next class, not even on the weekends or holidays. Nobody could make heads nor tails of it.

"I think… this is the first time we've ever left this classroom without any homework," Yang said, scratching her head as the team made it outside to the courtyard. The air around them was cold and wet, and dark, gray overcast above their heads painted the atmosphere with an unfriendly blueish tinge. "Do you think she's okay?" Yang continued. "Preeeeetty sure that I've never seen Goodwitch act this way before. Not even during that time when Jaune accidentally set off that explosive in her face."

Ruby smiled at the thought. Professor Goodwitch had been trying to demonstrate the proper way to set up a D-PED (or Dust Powered Explosive Device), and made the mistake of giving the detonator to Jaune, who dropped it on the floor as she was walking forward to set it in position. After recovering from the point blank explosion, Goodwitch had angrily kicked the poor boy out of her classroom—quite literally. Jaune's black eye that for the following week served as a reminder to all students not to get on Professor Goodwitch's bad side.

"No, it wasn't that," Blake spoke up, halting with a strange expression written on her face. "She looked… nervous about something. I don't know if you guys noticed, but every few minutes she seemed to habitually check the time on her watch."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Ruby answered, absentmindedly rubbing the edge of Crescent Rose. "Goodwitch isn't the type of person who has trouble when it comes to time. The woman even told us that sometimes she has her schedule written out a week in advance, by the hour."

"Then it's clearly something that she's expecting to happen, but can't pinpoint an exact time that it'll occur." Blake said, looking at Ruby worriedly. "The way her hands were shaking, the way she talked… She was _afraid_ of something."

"Yeah okay," Weiss said irritably. "Can we _please_ start walking again and talk about this after we get back to our room or something? It's really cold out here, and the mud from that storm last night is getting all over my boots and it's _disgusting_."

Blake rolled her eyes. "_What?_" Weiss cried out. "It's not like _you're_ wearing three hundred dollar shoes!"

"Okay, okay Weiss," Ruby said quickly, beginning to walk again. "We're going!"

Silence filled the frosty, humid evening air as the four girls trudged back to their dorm. Something was definitely wrong today, and quite frankly, if the cause was something large enough to spook _Goodwitch_, Ruby wasn't even sure if she wanted to find out what it was herself. A bitter gale of wind blew against Ruby's face, causing her to wrap her cloak tighter around her body. Winter winds were unforgiving.

* * *

Thunder boomed overhead as rain fell lightly from the sky. Ruby stared out the window into the foggy horizon. Even in the heated enclosure of their room, Ruby still felt cold. It was as if the bitter wind outside somehow had the ability to ignore the tightly shut window in front of her and blow straight into the room. Ruby could almost physically feel the uneasiness in the atmosphere. The hairs on the back of her neck were tingling—but it wasn't because of the cold. "_Am I imagining things?"_ Ruby thought to herself. "_Why do I feel this way all of a sudden?"_ She wondered if her other teammates felt the same. A stray gust of wind blew a wall of water at the window, making Ruby flinch backwards.

"Ugh, will this rain ever stop falling?" Yang asked, sprawling herself backwards on her bed. "The weather's been like this for almost a week, and the humidity just completely ruins my hair."

"I quite like the rain, actually," Weiss said casually. "At least when I'm not standing out in it, I like the sound of it falling. It's relaxing."

"Hey, weren't _you_ the one that was complaining about the weather earlier today, out of all of us?"

"I said I like the _rain_, not the _after effects_ of it! Besides, you guys were just standing there, wasting time!"

"We were having an interesting conversation! It's not _we're_ the ones that spend hours looking at boring _dust_ magazines!"

"Oh the nerve of you! I'll have you know that those magazines provide deals on dust that you would be unable to find anywhere else in Vale!"

Ruby looked backwards at her team as Weiss and Yang continued to bicker. Besides their quickly intensifying argument, the two girls seemed to be fine. "_Maybe I'm just sick."_ Ruby thought to herself, but then her eyes landed on Blake. The faunus girl sat on the edge of her bed with a purple book in her hands, but based on the way that her eyes occasionally flickered to the sides of their room, Ruby could tell that she was having trouble focusing. Blake sensed the younger girl's pair of eyes on her and looked up to meet Ruby's gaze. A look of mutual understanding passed between them. No, Ruby wasn't the only one who felt this way. Blake sensed the tension in the air.

Suddenly the room lit up white, and a loud '_**CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCKKK!'**_ deafeningly exploded throughout the air. Ruby shut her eyes tightly and covered her ringing ears. As the initial shock of the strike began to wear away, Ruby slowly let her eyes open. She was met only by darkness. Panic began to set into the young girl.

"Yang! Yang?" Ruby asked fearfully, a tight feeling building up in her chest. What had just happened?

"D-don't worry Ruby. I'm right here." Yang's voice called out, instantly making Ruby relax. There was a slight pause. "It was just lightning… I think… the power went out."

"Oh really?" Weiss snorted sarcastically from her bed. "And what makes you figure that?" There was a yelp as Yang accurately made contact with the heiress's head with her pillow, despite the pitch black.

"We should probably go to bed," Yang said, uncertainly. Ruby could almost picture Yang twisting her golden locks like she did whenever she was nervous about something. "After all, it was just a dramatic form of _lights out,_ right?'" Yang chuckled, clearly trying to keep the mood positive.

"I agree," Blake said, saving Yang from the silence of the rest of the team. "Let me help you up to your bed, Ruby."

Ruby gulped and nodded, trusting her friend's keen sense of vision in the darkness. Still, it wasn't enough to stop her from gasping slightly in surprise when she felt Blake's hand suddenly grab her own. "Easy there," Blake called out. "I'm not going to bite."

Ruby bit her lip and nodded again, letting herself be guided by Blake. She was glad that she had Blake as a friend, and not some enemy that could potentially attack her during the night when she couldn't see. "_What a silly thought"_, Ruby mused to herself as she felt the bottom of her bunk bed with her outstretched hand. She looked towards Blake's general direction and nodded her thanks. Blake's hand let go of her own, and she nimbly jumped up to her bed.

"Goodnight you guys!" Yang called out. She was met only by silence. "Sheesh, not all of you at once," she grumbled, turning over and planting her face into her pillow. Not moments later, small snoring sounds came out from her bed.

"How does that brute even manage that?" Weiss asked, likely rolling her eyes. Ruby smiled. Her sister was definitely a wonder in many regards. Ruby turned over herself and soon found herself drifting off into her own land of sleep and dreams.

* * *

**BLAKE BELLADONNA**

"Blake, what are you waiting for!?" Blake heard her name being called and turned. It was Adam, looking angry. "Blake, we don't have much time! Hurry up and finish it, we need to leave!"

"_Finish it?"_ Blake asked herself. "_Finish what?"_ She looked down, and realized that she was holding her unsheathed _Gambol Shroud…_ but that wasn't all. The sharp side of her weapon ran adjacent to the neck of a middle aged man, who was on his knees in front of her. The Schnee Dust logo stood out on the back of his suit. Blake instantly froze in place.

The man made a terrified whimpering sound. "P—please, don't' do this. I… I have a family!"

Adam walked up and hit the man hard across the face, causing a small splatter of blood to hit the floor near him. "You, shut your mouth," he spat. "We also had families, but have you ever cared? You executives sit back on your thrones of wealth while we're forced to take the most difficult of jobs for the smallest amount of pay. And what, you're trying to now beg for our _sympathy?_" Adam's hands trembled in anger. Adam looked up at Blake.

"What are you waiting for!? _Finish him off!_" He exclaimed. Blake remained fixated in place. A small tear of helplessness ran down her cheek. She couldn't do it. No, she couldn't take a life. How did she even get into this position?

Adam noticed the pain and hesitation rooted in Blake's eyes. His face darkened, and he turned away. "I had more faith in you, Blake," He said, softly but menacingly. Suddenly he turned around and drove his ninjatō straight into the chest of the kneeling board member, who choked in surprise. Blake shut her eyes tightly, tears now freely falling from her eyes as she heard the man's body hit the floor. She remained there with her eyes shut, clutching her gambol shroud tightly in her hand. The man that had just been breathing a second ago was now dead at her feet. Another life, wasted. A pounding sound on the door nearest to her made Blake's eyes open.

"We need to go!" yelled one of the White Fang members off to her right. "Adam, what are you waiting for?" Adam remained, unmoving. He looked up slowly, straight into her eyes. Blake shivered at the coldness that accompanied his gaze.

"I'm sorry Blake. I really am. But…if you're not with us…" He said, slowly drawing his sword.

"You're against us."

Blake cried out as Adam swiftly swung at her face. Redness filled her vision as his blade flew closer and closer, and then, finally, made contact with her wide-open eyes.

* * *

Blake's eyes flew open to the sound of muffled yelling from the other side of the door. Her face was soaked with her own tears, and her heartbeat drummed loudly out of control from her chest. Blake took a long, shaky breath, hastily wiping the water out of her eyes. "_Adam,"_ She thought to herself. The name brought back memories. Bad memories. Memories of her past… the ones that she kept locked inside, deep down inside of her. All Blake wanted to do was forget about them, but she knew that wasn't possible. Her past would never leave her.

More frantic yelling came from the hallway outside.

"Ughhh… What are they doing out there?" Weiss called out groggily. "Don't they know that some people actually _sleep_ during this time of the night?" Blake glanced at the clock near her bed. It read _5:33 am_. Blake closed her eyes again, blinking out the last of her tears. She sat up and made her way towards the door. Blake could see with her near perfect vision that Weiss was sitting up slowly as well. Yang and Ruby were still sleeping soundly.

Blake turned the doorknob and took a step into the hallway.

_Squelch_.

Instantly, Blake felt something cold seep out of the thin carpet beneath her surround her foot. Blake looked down. She had stepped into a thick, red liquid.

_Blood_.

Blake instantly recoiled and lifted her foot out of the fluid. She held onto the doorframe for support as she took another shaky breath.

"Oh my God… What happened?" Blake heard Weiss's voice behind her. The white haired girl stood behind her with a candle in her hand, her eyes opened wide. They both stood in the doorway and stared at the vile liquid that was settled in the middle of the hallway. Blake peered farther down. There was a thick trail of the substance coating the floor of the hallway. She tracked the source to the door that was two rooms down from their own.

"_Cardin's room?"_ Blake asked herself. She noticed two people hurrying down the hallway towards them. It was Sky, accompanied by Professor Goodwitch. Neither of them looked as they made their way down the hall. Sky halted a few feet in front of the door as Professor Goodwitch made her way inside. There was an audible distressed sigh from inside of the room, as well as some words that Blake couldn't quite make out from where she was standing. Weiss stepped over the blood in the hallway and made her way towards Sky. Blake pursed her lips and followed.

"Hey, what happened?" Weiss asked as she approached him. He turned towards her, his face looking whiter than Weiss's.

"Sh…She was a m-monster. I—I mean it was just a joke… We didn't actually… HURT her, but sh—she took it farther and…" His voice trailed off, eyes fixated on the floor.

Blake figured that Cardin and his gang had probably been picking on somebody again, but that much was the only normal thing that she could figure out.

"Where's Cardin?" Blake asked Sky seriously. He would probably be able to explain better than this stuttering boy.

Sky looked up at Blake right in the eyes.

"Cardin is dead."

Blake's eyes widened in shock. She heard Weiss catch her breath behind her. Dead? How could he be dead? "Wh-What do you mean dead?" Blake asked, her voice coated with uncertainty.

"Dead as in… his body parts s—scattered across the room dead." Blake went silent. She didn't know what to say… what to think. She wanted to think that he was playing some sort of cruel joke on the two of them, but the messy trail of blood that ran down the hallway said otherwise. Footsteps approached them. It was Professor Goodwitch.

"Sky, I need you to tell me what happened." She said, worriedly. The boy looked up and gulped, trying to regain some of his composure. He took a few deep breaths, then began to talk.

"I was sleeping… and there was this banging on the door. We—we tried ignoring it, and… I think it was Dove who yelled out for the person to go away? But the next thing I knew, there was a loud sound and the door was just wide open." Sky paused and swallowed.

"From that point… I don't really know how to describe it. Sh—she came in… and went straight for the bed nearest to her, which was Cardin's. There was a lot of screaming, and when I was finally completely awake and my eyes opened, I thought we were being attacked by the devil! Her… her mouth was smeared with blood, and Cardin was making these gagging noises… I didn't realize it was because he was drowning in his own blood. She was j—just... tearing him apart. She—she didn't even have a weapon! But the scariest thing is, when she looked up straight at me… her eyes. Oh god, her eyes were the worst." Sky stopped talking. He shuddered.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, urging him to continue.

Sky began to tremble again. "Her eyes were… they were _evil_. Her eyes… they were pitch black. It—it was… there was no white or anything. Just… coated… with black. It was like staring straight into a void."

Something evil had attacked them in the middle of the night? But that wasn't possible, Beacon Academy had one of the most secure facilities in all of Vytal. Nothing from the outside would have been able to get all the way to the student's sleeping quarters without setting off any alarms.

"Mr. Lark, you keep saying _she _attacked you… Who is this she?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

_Nothing… from the outside,_ Blake thought to herself. Her eyes widened as she realized what that statement implied.

Sky Lark closed his eyes, a final heavy sigh leaving his terror-filled chest. "It was her, the faunus girl… Velvet Scarlatina."


End file.
